Regular dental checkups and periodic professional cleaning of the teeth to remove plaque are very important for good health, in addition to that a regular personal regimen of dental hygiene is essential to maintaining the health and appearance of the teeth and gums. The use of a manual toothbrush having an array of bristles mounted near one end of some form of handle is the most familiar and commonly-used implement for this purpose. It is estimated that about all American brush their teeth at least once a day. In contrast to that only a smaller percentage of the population in the range between 10 and 40% uses dental floss to complement the tooth-brushing with an additional cleaning or gum massaging action. The bristles of the prior art devices are not able to brush deep inside the gums between teeth especially in spaces that are difficult to reach such as in between the molars, close to crowns and bleeding gums.
Regular filament floss are very well know in the art and come in different varieties made either in nylon, silk, or biodegradable polymers. Prior art filaments can also be waxed, or not waxed, flavored, or not flavored, and in some instance disinfecting and cleaning composition are added to the filaments to make them more effective in their cleaning action. Usually prior art dental flosses are commercially available in packages or rolls of 10-50 meters of flexible uninterrupted filament that have a diameter within 0.003 and 1 [mm].
If compared with the brushing action of a toothbrush dental floss have the flexibility to be slided in the space in between the teeth removing food particles in a space that it is not otherwise accessible to a regular toothbrush. The downside of a dental floss with respect of a more conventional brushing apparatus is the fact that it comes just as a filament so does not have any brushing capacity whatsoever.
To overcome this deficiency of prior art dental floss interdental brushes have been developed. Nowadays most periodontologists prefer the use of inter-dental brushes rather than the use of the prior art dental floss because of the lack of brushing capacity of the first one. Inter-dental brushes though are made by plurality of bristles radially projecting from the center of a rigid structure often made by metal or plastic. Said rigid structure may puncture the gums causing bleedings, and its routinary use may in turn weaken the gums around the teeth causing gingivitis and gum disease.
In addition to what discussed so far U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,890 to Thornton discloses and claims a teeth cleaning element containing threading end portions for cleaning relatively large spaces in the teeth consists of from about 400 to about 800 filaments in an elongated bundle that is from about 1,200 to 2,400 about denier. Under the teachings of the Thornton patent said filaments at the mid-portion of the length of the bundle are textured with the crimps and crinkles of the texturing of the several filaments being intermingled and in contact at numerous points and being adhered together at the contact points to form a bulky, longitudinal, longitudinally and laterally resilient mass.
In the Thornton patent, the cleaning part of this dental devise is not an integral part of the filament, so that there are two distinct elements that are assembled together weakening the mechanical strength and resistant of the combination. Additionally under the Thornton patent the bulky, cleaning section is composed of crimps and crinkles of filaments made of synthetics resign that are put together by some sort of adhesive nylon resin. Thus a device assembled under Thornton, may become dangerous if the adhesive resin comes apart and gets stuck between the teeth and inside the gums.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,857,471 to Harada discloses and claims a dental hygiene device for cleaning enlarged embrasures includes a brush portion having a plurality of bristles projecting from a rigid spine opposed ends of which are secured to lengths of flexible filament such as dental floss. Under the teachings of the Harnada patent said free end of at least one of the filaments may be provided with a stiff pin-like tip useful as a toothpick or in threading the device through gaps between teeth or orthodontic structures.
The Harada patent discloses a device that is not flexible and it is rigid in nature with a stiff pin-like tip. Also in this patent, the brush part of this dental devise is not an integral part of the filament since two distinct elements are put together by several means of attachments, causing in turn potential limitation for harm such as the one described in the Thornton patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,948 to Lloyd discloses and claims a bristled dental floss comprised of a plurality of sub-fibers each having a plurality of bristles secured thereto. Under the teachings of the Lloyd patent said sub-fibers, bristles, or both, may be stiffened with wax, TEFLON, nylon, or like material. The Lloyd patent fails to disclose a flexible assembly as well. In fact Lloyd suggests the use of Wax, Teflon or Nylon material to enhance the rigid character of its device. Also in the Lloyd patent the bristles or brushing, cleaning parts are not an integral part of the filament causing in turn potential limitation for harm such as the one described in the Thornton patent.
The prior art solutions hence are not entirely sufficient to effectively clean all areas especially those adjacent spaces or gaps such as those present between teeth, especially when root surfaces are exposed without causing damage to the gums.